he makes an excellent Metaphysical Discourse and proves the Unnaturalness and Unreasonableness of Idolatry by such Principles as were common to and Universally received by the Intellectual nature of Man And indeed a Rational conviction seems more clear and evident than a miraculous One by how much the Innate Idea's and Dictates of the Understanding are more sure and constant than the perplexed motions of a Versatile Imagination And we find that the Jews evaded the force of our Saviour's Miracles by saying they were done by the power of the Devil and though Lazarus come to them from the Dead yet they did not believe but sought to murder him and a perverse spirit will find various Artifices to elude the Assent which a Miracle commands from us But now Humane Reason being in all Men one and the same it is more likely to prevail when advantageously propounded from that antecedent sutableness and Harmony there is between it and all Truth And without doubt our blessed Saviour himself seems to intimate that the Assent which is extorted upon the working of Miracles is much less generous and Noble than that which is gained from the Understanding by the Native evidence and beauty of Truth Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe whereas the Facility of the Samaritanes is commended who believed on Jesus upon his own Discourse though he did no Miracle among them And besides all this Christ says expresly that the very Nature and frame the Sanctity and Majesty of the Doctrine he propounded was alike sufficient to render the Jews inexcusable as the unparallel'd Works he performed in their Presence If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin Again If I had not done amongst them the works which none other man did they had not had sin Wherefore to us who have Moses and the Prophets the Discourses of our Blessed Saviour and the Writings of his Apostles transmitted if we shall yet be incredulous it is as likely and probable we shall still continue so though one come to Us from the Dead For 1. We have already all things pertaining to life and godliness perspicuously delivered in the Holy Scriptures and this Doctrine at the first delivery of it was sufficiently confirmed and attested by Miracles and Supernatural Actions the History of which is made as credible to us as any Records of things can be which we our selves were not Spectators of Now if we can believe any Histories of former Ages any Records of Times past we have the same Reason to believe the History of the Gospel and he that sincerely credits that will be as much confirmed in the Religion he professes by those Miracles he finds long ago wrought to evidence its Divine Authority as if they were done now at this present before his eyes Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed 2. To desire new Miracles for the begetting of Faith is to question the Wisdome of God in the Contrivance of the Gospel For either the Scriptures are sufficiently confirmed and attested by the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles to beget Faith and Credence in any unprejudiced and disinteressed Person or they are not If they are it is in vain to require the Reproduction of Miracles in its behalf If they are not we then call in question the wisdome of God as if he either knew not the Natures and Constitutions of Men or did not foresee what was sufficient to work belief in them 3. The perpetuating Miracles for every Man's Conviction would destroy and make useless their Rational Faculties For the Christian Religion is a manifestation of the highest Reason that ever the World had any cognizance of and all its Parts and Doctrines are every way fitted to Rational Capacities But now Miracles being only Convictive to sense if for the confirmation of every Article of Religion there must be the concurrent Testimony of a Miracle all Appeal to our Reason and Intellectual Faculties were useless and supervacaneous 4. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead was a notable suffrage and testimony of his Divine Mission It is the highest instance of Divine Providence watching over and carefully superintending the Person of our Holy Lord and Master which though it permitted Him to fall into the Hands of wicked and cruel Men who bereaved him of his Innocent Life yet forsook him not in Death and the Grave but justified and approved the Design and Cause he managed in the World by dismantling those Infernal Prisons and bringing Him up to life again And this the Apostle takes as an eminent Declaration of the Divinity of Jesus who though according to that mortal and frail state he took upon him in the World became a Man of the Seed of David yet in regard of that Spiritual and Celestial condition which he obtained by the Resurrection from the Dead was manifestly declared the glorious and powerful Son of God For we cannot think that God would do so much for an Impostor or that the Divine Power would so highly concern it self in raising him from the Dead and thereby owning him in so singular and eminent a manner if he had not spoken in his Name and done all things by his Authority and Commission 5. Another Instance of the Divine Approbation of the Doctrine of our Saviour appears in sending down the Holy Ghost after his Ascension into Heaven This Mission of the Holy Spirit Christ promised his Disciples before he left the World and signally performs it upon the Day of Pentecost And this very thing is brought by the Author to the Hebrews as an Indubitable Confirmation of the Gospel How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness approving and owning the Doctrine of his Son Jesus both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will God is brought in here as a Witness to the Truth of the Gospel and his Testimony is the Mission of the Holy Ghost by whom the Apostles were inabled and furnished with divers gifts and miraculous Powers for the conviction of the World that Jesus was the beloved Son of God and Saviour of Mankind And this Redargution of the World was made a part of the Advocateship of the Holy Spirit by our Lord When he is come he will reprove the World of sin because they believe not on me that is he shall take upon him the defence of my cause and convince the World of their great sin in slaying me a true Prophet who came to declare the will of God unto them Of righteousness because I go to my Father and ye see me no more that is he should make it appear that I was just and innocent
continuance in goodness to his own solitary effort or powers but to the benign and auspicious influence of the Divine grace and spirit It is he that forms in us the Life and Nature of God that makes us Holy Righteous and Good enlightning the Eyes of our Minds that we may see the inestimable riches of the Gospel and convinces us of the Truth of the Great Promises of Salvation It is He that daily by a Vital Energy purges and refines the minds of Men from all filthiness and uncleanness and consecrates their hearts as Holy Temples unto God It is he that continually burns up and consumes our unruly lusts and breathes upon the Sacred Life of God in our Souls fanning it into a flame of love that we dwell in God and God in Us. Through his mighty Power we are secured from our Spiritual Enemies leading us with a Pillar of a Cloud by Day and a light of Fire by Night till he bring us to Heaven the true Land of Canaan But in all this the Divine Spirit does not pull and draw us like stocks and stones nor offer any irresistible violence to our wills nor must we expect that God should do all the work for us while we sit still but we must do it for our selves only he has graciously promised to concur and lend us his hand and his assistance Work out your salvation says the Apostle with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his good pleasure or according to your desire that is God stands ready to help you with Power and Ability to do it according to your desire or as you desire it of him and we are to take care that we actuate that Power which of his gracious bounty he confers upon us Which very thing makes us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cooperate with God as the Apostles are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 labourers together with God in the Dispensation of the Gospel Having now discovered the Great Influence of the Divine Goodness and Wisdome in the Work of Man's Salvation it remains likewise that I now shew how the Power of God has interessed and concerned it self in the same For the Apostle tells the Corinthians that he Preached Christ to them not only the Wisdome but the Power of God And again to them who are saved the preaching of the Cross is the Power of God Now this Power manifested it self 1. In raising our Blessed Saviour from the Dead Thus St. Paul says that Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the Dead that is God did own and publickly declare him to be his beloved Son in that powerful manner of raising Him from the Dead And again he calls it the mighty power of God which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the Dead For when the Jews had crucified our Saviour the Cause of the Gospel as to all Humane Appearance lay dead and buried with him as a lost and undone Cause insomuch that the Disciples themselves were brought to this We trusted it had been he that should have redeemed Israel so little hopes and expectations had they of a new state of things when they saw their great Master dead upon the Cross But suffering Virtue being so illustrious an object of the Divine Providence God who owned and approved our Lord Jesus all the time of his life would not now suffer his Credit and Reputation to lye at stake being dead and therefore notwithstanding the malice of the Jews and the envious diligence of the spirits of Darkness asserts and maintains the Truth of his Mission by bringing him up to life again The impious care and industry of his Enemies made the glory of our Saviour's Innocence so much the more clear and conspicuous they look upon him as an Impostor and having heard him afore speak of his Resurrection they endeavour by all means to hinder it that they might blast his Memory and bury his Honour with Disgrace therefore they roll a great Stone to the Mouth of the Sepulchre sealing it probably with the Signet of Pilate and setting a Band of Souldiers to watch about his Grave But God that loved his Son Jesus to his Death and took the care of Him when he was laid in the Grave disappointed the hopes and expectations of the Jews and made their malicious contrivances subservient Testimonies to the Truth of his Resurrection A mighty Angel comes down from Heaven at whose Presence and awful Majesty the Keepers trembled and the Earth it self was moved and rolls away the Stone and sits upon it and the stupendious Power of the Divinity shakes the Territories of Night and slumber and dismantles the Prisons of the Grave and restores to our Saviour that Life the Jews bereaved him of notwithstanding all their fraudulent Practices and Machinations A palpable Indication of the mighty and efficacious Power of God who alone can call the things that are not and quicken and enliven the Dead beyond all Humane Thoughts and Apprehensions 2. The Power of God in the Gospel has been very notable in the Destruction of the Devils Kingdom When Mankind began to apostatize from God and fall into Idolatry he gave them over to the Tyranny and Dominion of the Prince of Darkness as a just Punishment of their wilful Adhesion to his Counsels and Inspirations and for Reasons reserved in the Depth and Abyss of Divine Providence permitted all the World save that he selected himself a Church out of the Posterity of Abraham to be abused by the Devil and to lye under that servitude and slavery till the coming of Christ into the World But when the Son of Righteousness was risen the Nations of the Earth soon saw and walked in his light and the Prediction of our Blessed Saviour became verified and fulfilled in the Ruine of the Devils Kingdome whose lapse and fall was like lightning from Heaven For notwithstanding the mutual Combinations and Confederacies of the Kings and Potentates of the Earth against the Lords anointed and his Disciples and Followers notwithstanding the furious Rage of Satan in stirring up and raising many cruel and bloody Persecutions against the Church yet the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed so far that the whole Roman Empire at last became Christian whereby the Devil utterly lost his hold his Oracles being silent and his whole Worship destroyed And surely had not the Christian Religion been of God it could never have so Universally prevailed against such Potent opposition of Men and Devils The hand and Power of God was visibly and eminently discovered in the ample Diffusion and high success of the Gospel which from such weak and small Beginnings ran and was glorious captivating the Minds of Men to the obedience of Christ's Laws and bringing the World under the Scepter of his Kingdome Which Destruction of the Devils Rule and Dominion over Mankind being
consider that in the contrivance conduct and management of the Gospel there is a clear and manifest demonstration of the Infinite Goodness Wisdome and Power of God I. A manifestation of Infinite Goodness The Heavens and the Earth and all the capacities of Immense space declare an Infinite Goodness but the clearest and most sensible demonstration of it is in this Mystery of the Gospel wherein that boundless love which has dispersed it self through all the orders and degrees of life shines forth with a full and perfect lustre and glory Here it is that we behold that Love which liberally fills and sustains all things more powerfully exerting its Blessed Nature in cementing the Ruines and rearing up the Foundations of a new World for as in the first Creation an Eternal and Energetical love diffused it self in the Production of whatever was made so the same Goodness moves as it were a second time in the stupendious renovation of lapsed Souls in the Evangelical Mystery and Oeconomy Which Truth may yet receive a further Evidence by these Gradations 1. The more perfect any life is the more it desires to diffuse and communicate it self God is love says St. John and he is the highest and most perfect life now love is the most diffusive and communicative Principle in all the World and the firmer any being is radicated in love the nearer approaches it makes to that most excellent life and nature of God whose beneficence and kindness the whole Creation tastes of Self-love or the love of the Carkass the Bodily life restrains and contracts the free Exertions of the Mind and therefore the Apostle sets it as a note of degeneracy narrowness and anxiety when Men shall be lovers of themselves and corporeal pleasures in opposition to that Universal and Intellectual love which is the great Law of Rational Beings and by which our Minds are made wide as the World and carried forth in Benignity and Kindness to all the Creatures as they more or less partake of the Divine Life and Nature God is infinite Goodness and all the Creatures are but the issues and emanations of his exuberant Fecundity and Life and do more intimately depend upon him than Faculties and Actions upon the Principles from whence they flow It was not necessity or need nor any greedy and thirsty desire of receiving praise and glory from them that was the cause of the production of Men and Angels but only the Fulness of God's own Goodness which alone moved him to that chearful Approbation of the Works of his Hands when he saw his own life diffused in such variety of Beings And if we will do honour to God and speak according to our own faculties we may add life to this Demonstration from the inward sense and experience of every good Man who never finds a more inward joy and satisfaction of spirit than when he is carried out in desires and aspirations of Benignity and Kindness towards the whole Creation Nor does he look upon this as any Argument of Righteousness that he is at any time in a more happy state and condition than others for he could be willing that all the World were as happy as himself did he not see strong and evident Reasons in the wise Administration of Providence why it should not be so Something of this excellent Temper we find in those Passionate Eruptions of Spirit recorded in the Scriptures of Holy men who seem to be altogether transformed into love Blot me out of thy Book says Moses and I could be content to be accursed from Christ says St. Paul for my Brethrens sake Nay I am verily perswaded that he who is once throughly baptized into this spirit of Universal love would be contented to be eternally separated from the Presence of God so that he might be without sin if by that means the whole Intellectual Creation might be made happy Now if we can reason any thing of God from those Perfections we find in our selves we must needs conclude the highest and most perfect life to be most diffusive and communicative of it self 2. Goodness is so much the more excellent as the Objects are more noble about which it is conversant All things feel the effects of Divine Goodness according to their different Measures and Proportions and by how much the Rational life hath more objective reality than the sensitive by so much are the Emanations of Goodness of more worth and excellency communicated to the one than those diffused upon the other As a Man is a more noble Creature than a Brute so is the Goodness concerned with him higher and of greater value than that exercised upon a Beast God is the Father of Spirits and for that very Reason will not be implacable and irreconcileable to his own dear off-spring but though he chastise and scourge them for their bold and audacious revolt from his blessed Nature yet will not cast off for ever but in his sorest corrections remembers mercy Hence is that Prophetical Speech of the end of Christ's Death that it should be for the gathering together the scattered Sons of God though the Souls of Men had voluntarily forsaken God and travelled into a strange Land though their Iniquities had scattered them into far distant places from their own Home yet an everlasting Goodness followed them still and carefully sought the Reduction of those disobedient Sons of God who had divided and separated themselves from him 3. By how much the more fatal desperate and universal the evil is by so much the more glorious is the Goodness imployed in the recovery of the Creature from it Sin and wickedness is the misery not of a part only but of the whole Race of Mankind and this their Degeneracy became so fatal that it brought Darkness and Death it self upon all their better Faculties and placed them in an utter Incapacity for ever of recovering themselves by their own solitary power and effort into that state of immortality and life which sin had deprived them of Death passed upon all men says St. Paul for that or forasmuch as all have sinned So that all Mankind by their fall from God were under the Reign Dominion and Power of sin and death and out of this thraldome and captivity no Man could extricate and deliver himself whereby their condition became very deplorable and desperate But Divine Goodness that it might shew it self more conspicuously and gloriously to the World has brought on a more chearful scene of things under the Gospel rescuing Men from the Power of sin and death and delivering them from the Tyranny of the Devil through the meritorious Death and Passion of Jesus Christ who by his Glorious Resurrection hath fully declared himself a Powerful Conqueror of all his Enemies assuring Mankind of their re-enjoyment of Immortality and redeeming them from their Captivity under the Empire of Sin and Death and translating them into the peaceful Kingdome of Life and Righteousness Now as the